Posted on 12/25/2011 4:41:06 PM PST by smoothsailing
December 25th, 2011
There are currently many news stories and blog discussions about the Virginia presidential primary ballot access law. Some large blogs, such as Red State, have over 300 comments about the story. Some defend the current Virginia ballot access laws on the grounds that in past presidential elections, a fairly large number of Republican presidential primary candidates managed to qualify.
But what has not been reported is that in the only other presidential primaries in which Virginia required 10,000 signatures (2000, 2004, and 2008) the signatures were not checked. Any candidate who submitted at least 10,000 raw signatures was put on the ballot. In 2000, five Republicans qualified: George Bush, John McCain, Alan Keyes, Gary Bauer, and Steve Forbes. In 2004 there was no Republican primary in Virginia. In 2008, seven Republicans qualified: John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, and Alan Keyes.
The only reason the Virginia Republican Party checked the signatures for validity for the current primary is that in October 2011, an independent candidate for the legislature, Michael Osborne, sued the Virginia Republican Party because it did not check petitions for its own members, when they submitted primary petitions. Osborne had no trouble getting the needed 125 valid signatures for his own independent candidacy, but he charged that his Republican opponent’s primary petition had never been checked, and that if it had been, that opponent would not have qualified. The lawsuit, Osborne v Boyles, cl 11-520-00, was filed in Bristol County Circuit Court. It was filed too late to be heard before the election, but is still pending. The effect of the lawsuit was to persuade the Republican Party to start checking petitions. If the Republican Party had not changed that policy, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry would be on the 2012 ballot.
The Democratic Party of Virginia has been opposed to the strict law on primary ballot access, and has been in the habit of collecting signatures for all Democratic presidential candidates recognized by the party. In 2008, the state party collected 7,300 signatures for all its candidates, thus easing the burden on them and requiring them to collect only 4,000 to 5,000 on their own.
I used to live in Virginia, so my heart is with you Virginians. At this juncture, I don’t care if you are a Newt or a Perry supporter, BOTH submitted their signatures only to have them somehow disappear in official counts there, and I find that to look just downright dishonest and repulsive in fact.
The citizens of Virginia were robbed of choices in their primary by this monster mess and the unethical actions taken by the RPV which permitted Romney workers to be involved in the process of signature verifications.
I feel for both Newt and Perry who appear to have lost names because of these Romney people. And although Santorum, Bachmann, and Huntsman didn’t even try to submit anything, I have empathy for them as well for the fact they must have felt this process was so fixed they didn’t even think it was worth trying.
I’ll tell you this. I am a Perry supporter, but seeing the established Republican Party of Virginia use their powers to help Mitt Romney’s chances in Virginia has helped me to see I would indeed stand behind ANY conservative candidate and fight!
No Mitt Romney! Virginia needs to admit to the mess they have created, find some way to explain away how they stole Perry’s and Newt’s names, put both Newt and Perry back on the ballot, change those horrendous requirements and loopholes, and then force all Romny operatives involved in this fix to resign their posts, chairman seats, or offices, INCLUDING Virginia Lt. Governor Bill Bollings who is Mitt Romney’s Virginia campaign chairman, who submitted his 16,000 signatures (perhaps with all dead people for all we know), and who bragged in advance, IN ADVANCE, that he would not have a problem with getting verified since he would not have to be. That advance arrogance on that man’s part is, to me, the most telling that the Romney people and the elitist Republican Party of Virginia had this planned all along to help Romney.
So COBOL, I live in Texas now, but I can tell you I am hopping upset about what the Republican Party of Virginia has done to you all there in Virginia, and I know I am not the only one who cares. ANYONE who cares about having election choices in America will care about this as this shows us a very sad reminder of what elitist politicians will do to get their way and to tromp all over the American people if need be. We stand beside you in this!
I like Newt and Perry both and dislike both of the ones who qualified. But I know who is clearly to blame and don’t feel any desire for ‘civil unrest’.
The time to get the signatures was during the Nov elections -Perry and Newt were both unsure of their prospects then and didn’t.
We have a bunch of rich people in Virginia with a multiplicity of addresses.
Simply checking the addresses would not be a valid test in every instance. Nothing short of a personal interview would satisfy the need for perfection you assume to be behind the rule and the law.
Besides, Virginia wants to be part of Super Tuesday, not Pooper, Wednesday, but that's where we're at if the leading candidates can't get on the state ballot for the primary.
LOL! What a joke. You are going to be very disappointed when Perry and NEWT are on the ballot in VA. Right?
That's a pretty big defect.
I didn't get a notice.
They owe us that much at least!
Just sticking to the written words of the law, Newt and Perry made it. The problem is with the Mitbots in the government and the GOP machinery. We really need to purge them.
Well said. Amen.
The time to get the signatures was during the Nov elections -Perry and Newt were both unsure of their prospects then and didn’t.
The state neglected to notify each person in Virginia about the new rules for signing petitions.
That’s a pretty big defect.
I didn’t get a notice.
Why they didn’t tell the people designing the petition form to include their new rule, well, they got some ‘splainin to do.
I believe this is the first time because of the case mentioned in the article.
The 15,000 ‘safe harbor’ is only for the Party count (I assume to save money- and it’s not a new rule). The law still requires that 10,000 siganature and 400 in each district be a ‘qualified voter’
so there may be more fiireworks when the state recieves the petitions. I do not know what verification process they undertake however- probably a quick sample.
It strikes me as unfair if some petitions are thoroughly checked and others are not checked at all. That is where I think a challenge can be made. But IANAL.
Interesting article from 11/15 on the situation.
With apologies, you are being idiotic.
The “current governor” has met with many of the candidates. He’s good friends with Perry. He had a meeting with Gingrich last week. He introduced Perry at an RPV event in September.
The governor doesn’t run the RPV, or have dictatorial powers over the laws of the state.
This just happened the Friday before CHRISTMAS, and it is just now early monday morning. Nobody is going to act or make a comment that quickly over the holiday. The submission by the RPV isn’t due until tuesday.
There would be absolutely no basis for impeaching and removing the governor. And if there was, it’s not the job of the AG, nor would Ken have any interest in doing so.
And you want to move up the Lt. Governor because of this grand conspiracy you have weaved — and he (Bill Bolling) actually endorsed Mitt Romney and supports his campaign. So it’s like you are going out of your way to put a Romney supporter in charge.
If it “is true”, it shows that the “rules are rules” crowd have a basis for the argument, namely this filed lawsuit that challenges any laxity in checking signatures.
I can’t say if the RPV was this careful in checking signatures in 2008. I don’t remember them asking for volunteers, and I can’t remember how many signatures everybody submitted, but I think I remember Romney had more than 15,000 then as well.
But if they are worried that a lawsuit would bump their candidates off the ballot and put our delegate assignment in jeopardy, that would be a GOOD reason to follow the law more closely.
I hope there is something that can be done, but I’m not holding my breath, nor am I having a hissy fit or blindly attacking the men and women who work for the party here in Virginia, one of whom (a volunteer) lost his life driving home in the middle of the night after counting these signatures.
I will still note that when the gingrich folks still thought they were on the ballot, and Perry was off, nobody was talking about overthrowing the law or complaining — just making fun of Perry. Funny how the ballot access laws only became onerous and dispensable when the Gingrich folks realized their guy hadn’t qualified.
Are you seeing how many wrong ways you can spell Bob's name?
If you call Ken, ask him to explain to you what office he is running for. Tell him I said hi.
Hmmm.... written right after the Nov elections- someone must have noticed the lack of petition gatherers outside the voting precincts.
It’s a mess, but I don’t see any excuse for the candidates-or their State organizations. I just don’t understand it.
BTW I checked on the timing of Palin’s ‘withdrawal’ in case the PDS crowd would try blaming her but she declined Oct. 5, so everyone knew in plenty of time that she wasn’t running.
“...a volunteer) lost his life driving home in the middle of the night after counting these signatures.”
Sorry to read this. I was worried about the volunteers putting in such a long day to perform this certification, and many with such long drives to get home. Do you have more information you could share?
Cuccinelli is running for governor and will competing with Bolling for the nomination. McDonnell has already endorsed Bolling.
Ken has announced he is running for governor.
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